By Diane Harris, HQ Stitch Brand Ambassador

I’ve been quilting on the HQ Capri every day recently and I continue to learn—sometimes the hard way. But I know that is part of it, and my experience over a lifetime has been that lessons stick best when they come at a cost.

I really like this kind of energetic scrappiness. There’s enough variety to keep your eye moving but enough cohesion to hold the design together. It’s great fun to piece a quilt like this.

Down in the ditch

When it was time for quilting, the first order of business was to quilt the blocks and borders in the ditch. I did this on the HQ Stitch 710 because I think ditch quilting is easier on a domestic than a stationary longarm, but that’s just personal preference. I’ve learned to stitch in the ditch on the HQ Capri by using a ruler and there’s a time and a place for that, but this quilt wasn’t it.

Finger shapes in rows didn’t look quite right.

Once the ditch quilting was done, I moved to the HQ Capri. I decided to quilt all of the background areas first. I think I had the right idea, which was to quilt them more densely than the X’s and O’s. I quilted finger-like shapes in a back and forth motion. I wasn’t entirely happy with it but I couldn’t put my finger on exactly why not.

More variety in the finger shapes looks better.

About three-fourths of the way through the background quilting, it hit me: Instead of quilting rows of similar finger shapes, I should have been varying the height to give a nicer texture. If they were of different heights, I could’ve nestled them together. I could have filled the spaces in a way that felt more natural.

Feeling spacey

I’m learning that machine quilting is spatial in nature. I need to understand the shape of the spaces on each quilt, and then what motifs in what sizes and quantities will fill those spaces.

Since this quilt was meant for practicing, I just switched mid-stream and finished the backgrounds in the new, improved way. Live and learn. Onward.

The other thing I’ve realized on this quilt is that if the fabrics are very active, also known as “busy,” the quilting isn’t going to show very much so there’s no need to spend a lot of time on it.

Dry-erase marker on Quilter’s Preview Paper

X’s and O’s

When the backgrounds were all finished, I auditioned designs for the X’s and O’s. I love using Quilter’s Preview Paper by drawing prospective designs on it with a dry erase marker. I decided on simple leaves with some berries to connect them as needed, above.

This has turned out to be an easy and effective motif. It fills the spaces nicely and I can flow from one block to the next without much trouble.

I haven’t yet decided on how to quilt the borders. For me it’s a little like deciding on border fabrics: I can’t do it until I see what the center looks like!

What would you quilt in the borders? I wonder if it should relate to what’s quilted over the center. I’ll mull that over while I finish quilting the hearts, X’s and O’s!

Quilt on,